What to offer as a Christmas present ? These birch candle holders were easy, fast and fun to make, yet years later (some) people tell me with unconcealed pleasure that they use them almost daily. If that’s not a sales pitch, then I don’t know what will be one.

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Take birch branches, ideally 2 inch diameter wide. Cut the branch on the miter saw in 1-inch  chunks, try to keep the cuts as parallel as possible. Number the chunks in sequence,  so that you can re-stack them later for presentation purposes.

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Drill a hole in one of the sides with a 40mm ( 1 1/2 inch) Fostner bit on the drill press. Block the birch chunks properly before drilling. This is definitely NOT a freehand job, and I speak from experience (” Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment”). Depth is about 15 mm or 5/8 inch, check with your model of tealight candles.

Note the chunk reference number in the candle cavity. I sanded the chunks up to 400, this gives a sensuelle smooth surface, but that depends on your personal taste and diligence.

I wrapped 4-5 chunks in the proper order in translucent cellophane paper, candles included. Success guaranteed.